Fall baseball team wins three of final four games

Thursday

Nov 8, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By John CochinSanford News Sports Editor

SANFORD—After losing their first four games, the Sanford 11-12 Year Old Fall baseball team showed how hard work and practice can improve a team noticeably as they finished up the season by winning three of the final four games to close out with a 3-5 record.

The Fall league is organized by the USA Training Center in Newington, N.H. and was comprised of teams from Sanford, South Berwick, Somersworth, Durham, Rochester, North Conway, Farmington, Portsmouth, The season consisted of one game a week, played on Saturday at the Roger Allen Park in Rochester, N.H. The season began on August 18 and ran to October 20.

Sanford’s team played in the Cal Ripken 11-12 year old 70-foot Division. The base paths were 70 feet versus Little League’s 60 feet, and the distance from pitcher’s mound to home plate is 50 feet versus Little League’s 46. Base runners can take leads and streal which requires pitchers to pitch out of the stretch, etc. “The kids absolutely loved the game of baseball and it was an absolute ball instructing these kids on the added fundamentals of the game,” said Chad Liston, one of the coaches. “The extra distance on the base paths meant the infielders actually have a very good chance of turning double plays, which they executed on a regular basis, and the extra distance from the pitchers mound to home plate was just enough to give the hitters an extra split second against really hard throwing pitchers.”

The league is considered instructional and extended training for kids that just don’t get enough baseball in the spring. Although the competition is tough, intense, and everyone is playing to win, the primary objective is to have fun by improving and becoming a better ball player, Consequently, there are no playoffs or championships. If a pitcher committed a balk, the umpire would call a balk but the runner(s) would not advance. Rather, the umpire would go to the mound and instruct the pitcher on what he did wrong.

Much of the success of the second half of the season had to do with batrting average. The team batted a collective .143 over the first half of the season, the jumped up to .383 over the last half. “This was not due to facing weaker pitchers...these kids just got really good at hitting the baseball against tough pitching,” said Liston. “All of the reps at practice off the T, soft toss, live batting practice, etc. made a huge difference,” Liston added.

Offensive standouts were Kaleb Kerrigan and Miles Hilton according to Liston. “Kaleb proved time and again to be a very tough out, finishing with a .500 batting average and an unbelievable.800 OBP. He also led the team in overall hits, doubles and RBIs.

Anchoring the pitching rotation were Chase Kerrigan, Miles Hilton and Gus Hogan. Chase finished with a 2-3 record with a 4.47 ERA, striking out 25 batters in 17.1 innings while walking only nine and giving up 17 hits. Pitch count in this league is 50 pitches, so after two or three innings, they’re all done.

The scores in the first four games were:Somersworth 5-Sanford 2; Farmington 3-Sanford 2; North Conway 11- Sanford 3, and North Conway 9-Sanford 7.

Scores ot the next three games, all wins, were Sanford 10-Durham 7; Sanford 7- South Berwick 5; and Sanford 9-Portsmouth 3. The team lost to Rochester 16-8 in the season finale.

According to Liston, the last game of the season, even though they lost and their defense wasn’t at its best, saw the team battle a great team and was able to hit and score runs against some very good pitching.

After three innings the locals were behind 7-5, and Rochester added two more in the fourth for a 9-5 lead. But Sanford really closed the gap in the top of the fifth. Chase Kerrigan led off the inning with long drive that would have been out of Little League Park but these fences are 240 feet and he had to settle for a double. Ethan Arrowsmith was hit by a pitch and Gus Hogan stepped up and delivered a bullet up the middle for a single scoring Kerrigan. Miles Hilton followed with a two-strike single, loading the bases.

After a fielder’s choice grounder by Kaleb Kerrigan, Nick Liston stepped up in a one out, bases loaded situation and had a great battle at the plate. After running the count to full, he hit an opposite field liner to right-center, plating Gus and Miles to narrow the score to 9-8. But Rochester turned a hard hit liner by Alex Belanger into a double play. Rochester then put the game away by scoring seven more runs in the next inning.

“My assistant coaches did a tremendous job the entire season,” said Liston. “Jayson Chase is a heck of an instructor who brought a great deal of knowledge to the coaching staff and thje kids. Curt Kerrigan displayed a tremendous energy and enthusiasm that we all enjoyed being around.”